Android Wear Is Here

Google’s revealed Android for wearable tech, and a couple of upcoming smartwatches. But rumours abound of even more smartwatches coming this year

It’s taken just about forever, but Android has officially entered the smartwatch race with Android Wear, a new offshoot of the popular OS that’s designed to run on wearable gadgets and sync them with every other Android device out there.

From the released videos, Android Wear looks like an impressive bit of software. Visually, Wear holds true to Android’s current design principles, and looks set up to be one of the best user interfaces in smartwatches so far. In terms of features, Wear acts like Google Now, with a lot of the same features you can find on your Android phone. Messages can be read (in full), and replied to using Google’s voice commands. Playing songs, tracking your fitness and finding your way around town just got a lot easier. Not to mention a whole plethora of functions – and many still to come – as Google releases Wear to developers.

Of course, the software is only one half of the smartphone. Hardware matters in both form and function. Google’s Glass team will be the first to tell you that tech should never be conspicuous. In line with this, Google also announced the first two hardware partners to showcase Wear. They’re both obvious choices: Motorola and LG. And some might also consider it obvious that it’s Motorola who shines.

Which brings us to the Moto 360 – a gorgeous-looking piece of hardware. If the final product looks and works as seamlessly, and has a decent enough battery life, we can officially say the smartwatch race is on. Which isn’t to say that LG’s effort doesn’t look good, it just isn’t as impressive as the Moto 360. But then, Motorola’s been having a dream run in hardware design (with the stomping success of the Moto G and the anticipated Moto X).

Now you can’t really talk about design in Android without talking about HTC, and rumours say the Taiwanese smartphone Titan is planning their own smartwatch. A smartwatch with the design sense of the HTC One and Android Wear certainly sounds like something we’d be interested in. Some reports state that HTC will have a secret reveal of the smartwatch to carriers, while others speak of a device with intensive Google Now integration. Android Wear perhaps?

You can’t keep Samsung out of any discussion that involves an electronic gadget, and we’d consider it unlikely that the Korean manufacturer will stay away from Android Wear. Does this mean that Samsung will hold the same design principles as Google have boldly showcased for Android Wear? We’ve yet to see Samsung design a handsome smartwatch (some might add, ‘or smartphone’), so we wouldn’t hold our breath for that.

Still, with Sony, Samsung and Pebble already here, Motorola and LG on their way, and with HTC rumoured to join the fray (and possibly Samsung, yet again), 2014 appears to shaping up as the year of the smartwatch after all.